Rotating pointer chance device

ABSTRACT

A games board assembly is provided of generally circular form in plan, in which the top surface is divided into an inner stationary circular deck and a surrounding stationary annular deck by an intervening spinning ring carrying a pointer, the two decks bearing respective games boards selected from stocks of such boards. A further annulus of the top surface surrounding the aforesaid annular deck is constituted as a peg board. Underneath, a storage section is provided to contain the stock of games boards not in use.

United States Patent 1 1 Robertson 1 1 Sept. 4, 1973 ROTATING POINTER CHANCE DEVICE 973,186 19/1910 Fisher 273/141 R 1,167,407 l/l9l6 J0hnson..... 273/141 R {751 Invent ggi gl gz gg m 1,513,500 10/1924 Greig 273/141 R FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [73] Ass'gnee' t 'g' g z 190,068 9/1907 Germany 273 134 GA 118,264 6/1930 Austria 273 141 R [22] Filed: Nov. 16, 1971 Primary ExaminerDelbert B. Lowe [21] Appl' l99l42 Attorney-Arthur E. Dowell, Jr. et a1.

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data ABSTRACT Nov. 20, 1970 Great Britain 55,385/70 A games board s y is Provided of generally circular form in plan, in which the top surface is divided into [52] US. CL... 273/141 A, 273/134 GM, 273/136 C an inner stationary circular deck and a surrounding sta- 51 1111. C1. A63f 5/00 lioflary annular deck y an intervening Spinning ring [58] Field 61 Search 273/134, 136, 141 y g a pointer, the two decks bearing respective games boards selected from stocks of such boards. A [56] References Cit d further annulus of the top surface surrounding the UNITED STATES PATENTS aforesaid annular deck is constituted as a peg board. Underneath, a storage section is provided to contain 2/121: of 1,846,481 2/1932 Enge 273/141 R X 10 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures /.5 l6 l8 l7 /3 25 25' 24 26 Inventor W Q/ Q ow R mm PATENTEDSEP 41ers sg'lsegsos suasr 1 nr 3 i Q Q PATENTEDSEP 4m 3756605 sum 2 -ur 5 an MA) Inventor A Mar-m5 ROTATING POINTER CHANCE DEVICE This Invention relates to games and pastimes, and more especially board or card and board games of the kind which involve the players in taking turns at making random or chance selection of numbers, letters or the like.

Hitherto, in most of such games the random selections have been made by throwing dice. It is an object of this invention not only to obviate the need for throwing dice but also to provide a games board arrangement which is very much more versatile than those available previously.

According to the present invention, the games board assembly is in the form of a generally circular deck which is separated into an inner disc and a surrounding outer annulus by an intervening ring mounted to spin freely on the deck and bearing at least one pointer or other marker to co-operate with the inner disc and/or outer annulus.

An extremely versatile arrangement is thereby achieved, in that interchangeable circular and annular boards, in the form of printed cards, can be placed on the inner disc and the outer annulus of the deck. Spare boards can, if desired, be stored in a storage or subbase section of the device under the deck.

Free spinning of the pointer-bearing ring is essential; this ring may be mounted to rotate on a central fixed spindle or spigot, with washers or pads of a selflubricating synthetic plastics material interposed between the spinning ring and the non-rotating part on which it spins.

Arrangements in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan of one games board assembly to be described,

FIG. 2 is a section on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is an exploded pictorial view of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2; 1

FIG. 4 is a partial view similar to FIG. 2 showing a modification of the device, I

FIGS. 5a and 5b are detail plan views to illustratethe reversability of an arrowhead pointer of the device, and

FIG. 6 is a pictorial view of a sub-base or storage section for the games board assembly.

The non-rotary body of the device to be described is made up of two separable sections, namely' a main or base section 10 and a central deck plate 11. The base section 10 is circular in plan and has a peripheral wall 12 and an upstanding flange 13 some distance radially inward from the peripheral wall. The flange 13 is lower in height than the wall 12, while at the centre of the base there is a spigot 14 that is lower again than the flange 13. The deck plate 11 is also circular in plan and has on its underside a central collar 15 that is a frictiontight fit over the spigot 14 on the base section 10. The outer rim of the deck plate 11, which has a small upturned lip 16, has a radius rather less than that of the inner wall of the flange 13 on the base section, so providing an annular channel 17 between the two.

Within the channel 17 there is disposed a spinning ring member 18 formed by an upstanding flange at the periphery of a rotating disc 19 which lies under the deck plate 11 and has a central aperture that is a running fit around the spigot 14. The ring member 18 is elevated slightly above the flange l3 alongside it and also above the deck plate 11. On the floor 20 of the base section 10 around the spigot 14 there is an annular bearing pad 21, and a number of washers 22 made of self-lubricating synthetic plastics material rest in a stack on the bearing pad 21 and support the disc 19 for rotation thereon.

The spinning ring 18 carries a removable arrow-head pointer 36 which co-operates with a circular game board carried by the upper surface of the deck plate I 1 and/or with an annular game board carried by an inner portion 25 of an annular outer deck surface 23 forming part of the base section 10 and joining the flange l3 and the peripheral wall 12. The pointer 36 may have a square stem 26 (FIGS. 5a and 5b) fitting into a square socket 27 in the spinning ring 18, and the pointer stem can then be placed in this socket so that the pointer points toward the game board on the deck plate 11 or toward the game board on the annulus 25, as desired.

The portion 25 of the outer deck 23 that carries the annular game board is lower than the top'of the flange l3 and extends out from the flange 13 about half way to the wall 12. Beyond this, the deck 23 has an annulus 28 which is raised to the level of the top of the ring 18 and provided with sockets 24 to form a peg board.

The games boards both on the deck plate 11 and on the deck annulus 25 are changeable. One circular board may be stuck down or otherwise applied permanently to the deck plate 11 and there may be a collection of other separate games boards, any of which can be selected and placed temporarily over the permanent board already on the deck plate. Similarly, there may be a permanent annular game board stuck down or otherwise applied to the deck annulus 25, with further separate games boards for placing over it temporarily. The arrangement thus provides for not merely a single game but a whole library or compendium of interchangeable games.

FIG. 6 shows a sub-base or storage section which provides storage for loose games-boards not inuse and fits under the assembly of FIGS. 1 to 3. The storage sec-' tion 35 has a flatbase plate 37 with an upstanding pe-.

ripheral rim 38 and two inner flanges 39, 40. The rim 38 is stepped in at 41 to fit within the wall 12 of the main section 10 of the deck above and specifically into an internal recess 42 provided in the lower part of that wall. The flanges 39 and are of a height to underlie and support, respectively, the outer deck 23 and the floor 20. The inner circular storage space 43 within the flange 40, and the annular storage space 44 between the flanges 39 and 40, receive the stored games boards. The annular space 45 between the rim 38 and the flange 39 has division walls 46 at intervals around the annulus so as to divide it into separate storage compartments for tokens, counters and so forth for individual players.

To enable a user to build up a library of games, separate games boards may be supplied in the form of pressout shapes printed on partly cut card. Another possibility is to form the sub-base or storage section so that a number of these can be stacked one upon another. The various base sections-can then be used for storing different classes of games and can be in different colours denoting, say, childrens games, sporting or adult games, educational or instructional pastimes, and so Modifications of the arrangement described are, of course, possible without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, instead of the self-lubricating washers, a ball mounting can be employed for the spinning ring 18 as in FIG. 4. In this case the ring 18 is provided by the upstanding peripheral flange of an L- section annular member 29 that runs on balls 30 lodged in pockets 31 equidistantly spaced around the floor of the trough 32 formed between the flange 13 and the spigot 14. The spigot 14 is here of considerably greater diameter than in FIGS. 2 and 3 and the collar on the deck plate 11 is correspondingly larger but now fits inside the spigot instead of over it. If desired, there could be further balls 33 disposed between the inner edge of the member 29 and the outer wall of the spigot 14 and supported on a ledge 34 within the trough 32.

A further modification is the electrification of the board so that, for example, a succession of different lamps or lamp arrays are illuminated as the spinning ring rotates. This can be quite readily achieved, in manner known per se, by fitting the non-rotating deck with a series of circumferentially-spaced electrical contacts, such as embedded strip contacts, which are engaged in turn by a contact rotating with the spinner. The lamps or lamp arrays can be employed to indicate scores", winners, and so forth.

What I claim is:

l. A games board assembly, comprising a generally circular fixed deck which is separated into a non-rotary inner disc and a surrounding non-rotary outer annulus by an intervening annular channel, a rotary ring member mounted in said channel, bearing means on the deck for said ring member enabling the ring member to spin freely in said channel, and at least one pointer carried by said ring member and cooperating with the inner disc and outer annulus.

2. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein a single pointer is reversible to point either radially inward or radially outward.

3. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the inner disc and the surrounding outer annulus each carry a game board.

4. An assembly according to claim 3, wherein a removable sub-base or storage section is provided under the deck having compartments for the storage of games boards not in use.

5. An assembly according to claim 4, wherein the storage section also has compartments for small loose games items such as dice, counters and the like.

6. An assembly according to claim 4 wherein a number of removable storage sections are provided adapted to be stacked one upon another beneath the deck.

7. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein said outer annulus of the deck is surrounded by a further annulus deck area constituted as a peg board.

8. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the spinning ring member is mounted to rotate on bearing elements made of self-lubricating synthetic plastics material, said elements constituting said bearing means.

9. An assembly according to claim 8, wherein the deck has a central spigot upon which is mounted a rotary disc forming a part of said spinning ring, and the weight of the disc and spinning ring rests on a number of washers, made of said self-lubricating material, surrounding the spigot, said washers constituting said bearing elements.

10. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the spinning ring member is mounted to rotate on balls lodged in pockets in the deck. 

1. A games board assembly, comprising a generally circular fixed deck which is separated into a non-rotary inner disc and a surrounding non-rotary outer annulus by an intervening annular channel, a rotary ring member mounted in said channel, bearing means on the deck for said ring member enabling the ring member to spin freely in said channel, and at least one pointer carried by said ring member and cooperating with the inner disc and outer annulus.
 2. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein a single pointer is reversible to point either radially inward or radially outward.
 3. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the inner disc and the surrounding outer annulus each carry a game board.
 4. An assembly according to claim 3, wherein a removable sub-base or storage section is provided under the deck having compartments for the storage of games boards not in use.
 5. An assembly according to claim 4, wherein the storage section also has compartments for small loose games items such as dice, counters and the like.
 6. An assembly according to claim 4 wherein a number of removable storage sections are provided adapted to be stacked one upon another beneath the deck.
 7. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein said outer annulus of the deck is surrounded by a further annulus deck area constituted as a peg board.
 8. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the spinning ring member is mounted to rotate on bearing elements made of self-lubricating synthetic plastics material, said elements constituting said bearing means.
 9. An assembly according to claim 8, wherein the deck has a central spigot upon which is mounted a rotary disc forming a part of said spinning ring, and the weight of the disc and spinning ring rests on a number of washers, made of said self-lubricating material, surrounding the spigot, said washers constituting said bearing elements.
 10. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the spinning ring member is mounted to rotate on balls lodged in pockets in the deck. 